Sister Dorothy Stang, (born June 7, 1931, Dayton, Ohio—died Feb. 12, 2005, Anapu, Pará state, Braz.) American missionary and activist who , was a staunch champion of peasant farmers in the Amazon rainforest during her 22 years spent helping them to attain a sustainable living, but her advocacy was opposed by ranchers and loggers. Stang, who days before her death had met with Brazil’s human rights secretary to plead for protection for the farmers, was the victim of a contract killing. Following her death, Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva created two vast Amazonian forest preserves and sent 2,000 troops to the troubled region.

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Brazilian football (soccer) player who was named the World Player of the Year by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in 2007. Kaká owed his nickname to his younger brother Rodrigo, who as a child could not pronounce Ricardo and could manage only “Caca.” Kaká was seven when the family moved to São Paulo. A keen football enthusiast,...

Portuguese Jesuit acclaimed as a poet, dramatist, and scholar. He is considered one of the founders of the national literature of Brazil and is credited with converting more than a million Indians. Anchieta came from a prominent Portuguese family and was even thought to be related to the founder of the Jesuit order, St. Ignatius Loyola. He was educated...

Brazilian politician who in 2011 became Brazil ’s first female president. She was reelected in 2014 but impeached and removed from office in 2016. Early life and political career Rousseff was raised in an upper-middle-class household. Her father was a lawyer who immigrated to Brazil from Bulgaria, and her mother was a teacher. In 1964 Brazil’s president...